Printers are well known and are used to print documents onto loose, single sheets of paper. Point-of-sale printers are printers typically used in business transactions and include functions such as printing receipts or printing on preprinted documents, such as on personal checks.
New functions continue to be integrated into point-of-sale printers in order to minimize clutter, reduce footprints, and increase operational efficiency. In order to complete document-processing functions as quickly as possible, some conventional solutions combine printing and scanning functions. A problem with these existing conventional solutions is that documents can get misfed when documents transition from the print area to the scan area.
Some conventional solutions physically locate various mechanisms as close a possible. A problem, however, with existing solutions is that it may be difficult to provide maintenance (e.g., cleaning, repairs), because the various mechanisms may be too close together, making access to the various mechanisms difficult.
Another conventional solution is to include an optical sensor to detect the location of a document being printed or scanned. However, the additional scanning mechanism requires additional software and hardware, increases cost and complexity of the printer, as well as increases clutter within the printer.
Disadvantages of many of the above-described and other known arrangements include increased clutter within a printer and the requirement of both additional hardware, software, and the possible misfeeding of documents transitioning from the print area to the scan area.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved printer system that integrates various printer functions without the above-described problems. The system and method should be simple, cost effective and capable of being easily adapted to existing technology. The present invention addresses such a need.